as far as i can tell, the device is a mobile modem, so that aspect is ontopic here. questions that center around an individual service provider are generally too localized, but i think for this question the service provider is context, not primary content. since my reading suggests this question boils down to a capabilities-of-computer-peripheral question, i think it should stay open.
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quack quixoteApr 19 '10 at 18:17

2 Answers
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I live in the Dominican Republic (another country that Claro has networks in) and I can confirm that they only have 3G on the 850MHz band. Since your modem is a European version it does not support the american bands. The reason you can get EDGE is because Claro supports the European bands for EDGE/GRPS/noData.

Thanks for the reply, however some of the sites are listing the device as supporting the 850Mhz band - could there be a difference in how it supports that band? Just noticed it says GSM850, but only HSDPA 2100, I guess that is the issue...
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Chris KimptonApr 20 '10 at 11:52

1

GSM, EDGE, UMTS and HSDPA do not necessarily use the same band or protocol. Some aspects of the protocol are backwards compatible (iirc, UMTS modems have GSM modems in them for backwards compatibility) or can happily co-exist but support of one doesn't mean support of all.
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BroamApr 20 '10 at 13:48